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I quite like a short sentence. And a phrase by itself. Only for stylistic purposes, you understand. Nevertheless, it’s important to vary sentence length, otherwise your reader goes to sleep. I prefer the active voice. And don’t let anyone tell you can never start a sentence with ‘and’ or ’but’. You can, but it’s wise not […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: academic writing
It’s all about wordplay
Good academic writing – what’s your list?
I asked people in one of my Australian writing workshops to tell me what they thought was essential in good academic writing. The purpose of the activity was to generate criteria that participants could use to steer their own writing. The list was not meant to be an evaluative rubric, something that could be used […] … learn more→
Academic writing – no one best way
My approach to writing about and teaching academic writing is underpinned by some key principles. One of them is this – no one best way. Or I can alternatively express this as one size does not fit all. Let me explain. Not all of the writing that is done in the academy is the same. Different […] … learn more→
Mind your technical language and write more clearly
Lately I’ve been doing some more reading around my thesis subject in preparation for writing up. I’ve been making notes from textbooks, casting my eyes over topic reviews and poring over original research papers. As I covered a subject related to my thesis, but unfamiliar to me, I suddenly realised how often I was stopping to look up the meaning […] … learn more→
Academics need to embrace new ways of writing and sharing research
Universities are a “thousand-year-old industry on the cusp of profound change”. That’s according to a study that explored Australia’s higher education landscape four years ago. One warning from the report rings true far beyond Australia and all the way around the world: Over the next ten-15 years, the current public university model … will prove […] … learn more→
Here’s why academics should write for the public
There’s been much discussion about the needless complexity of academic writing. In a widely read article in The Chronicle of Higher Education last year, Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard and author of several acclaimed books including The Sense of Style, analyzed why academic writing is “turgid, soggy, wooden, bloated, clumsy, obscure, unpleasant to […] … learn more→
Clear, concise writing: It’s the law (seriously)
Earlier this fall a headline in The Atlantic caught my eye. “The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing,” it said. Promising enough on its own, but there was also a subhead: “A new movement strives for simplicity.” It was like Christmas had come early. I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that the crusade to simplify […] … learn more→
On “other” academic writing
Academic writing is not all introduction, literature, methods, results, discussion. While this is the dominant mode of writing across the social sciences, and in other disciplines too, it is not all that there is. IMRAD, and the variations on it, is certainly the academic writing structure and style that is most recognised and rewarded, but […] … learn more→
Taste the #acwri difference – recount, summary, argument
There are three major genres of academic writing that we use most of the time. It’s good to understand the differences between them and where they are used, and how. Recount A recount is a text which talks about what happened, and what we/I/others did. Two types of recounts occur regularly in scholarly texts: (1) […] … learn more→
The pluses and minuses of #acwri self-diagnosis
I don’t write much about my dogs. I have two. They’re fairly elderly now and becoming plagued by ailments that are not really life threatening, but do need attention. It all began when the older of the two got terribly lethargic. Suddenly, it seemed, she could hardly drag herself out for a walk. One week […] … learn more→
